Monday in the House, and most of the leaders were absent. Thomas Mulcair was present, and read off a pair of questions about the temporary foreign workers programme changes. Jason Kenney, the designated back-up PM du jour, stood up to insist him that Mulcair was wrong, and that these workers would be paid at the prevailing rate range, and only if Canadians were being paid at that same rate, and added that they need to ensure that the unemployed accept jobs in their regions. Mulcair transitioned the the lockout at US Steel, to which Kenney insisted that the question was pure demagoguery, and this was about a labour dispute. Chris Charlton stood up to ask the very same temporary foreign workers programme questions, to which Kenney gave her the same response, and brought up the many times that the NDP were begging him to allow more of said workers in their ridings. Marc Garneau led off for the Liberals, asking about the “payroll tax” of EI premiums. Kenney stood up to insist that the Liberals wanted more benefits without the increase in premiums, and that they wanted to repeal the GST cuts. For his last question, Garneau revisited last week’s theme of youth unemployment, to which Kenney insisted that no government has done more than theirs to help youth employment.

Round two started off with Peter Julian denouncing Joe Oliver’s comments about climate change (Kent: We believe in science), Megan Leslie asked about the changed rules for what triggers a federal environmental assessment (Kent: We are taking a balanced approach), Françoise Boivin asked about the new RCMP communication protocols (Toews: The Commissioner decides who he meets with and who his officials meet with, and the appropriate place for MPs to meet with these officials is at committee), and Alexandre Boulerice and Charlie Angus asked about privacy leaks in the civil service (Clement: Most of these leaks occurred years ago and triggered changes to strengthen privacy protection). Judy Sgro asked about the impact of tariffs on seniors (Flaherty: Preferential tariffs were a foreign aid measure that are no longer necessary), and Judy Foote and Stéphane Dion asked about the impact on the changes to EI (Leitch: That’s false and yay Economic Action Plan 2013™!) Isabelle Morin asked about youth unemployment (Leitch: Look at all of our programmes and yay Economic Action Plan 2013™!), and Christine Moore and Jack Harris asked about cuts for flight training for air cadets (MacKay: We will not cut the cadet programme).

Round three saw questions on FDA warnings about the Canadian company Apotex, whether SNC Lavalin would be ineligible for Canadian government contracts after allegations of corruption abroad, cuts to services, dredging for small craft harbours, the US Steel labour dispute, helping veterans find jobs, consultations for the reforms to CIDA, a call for a public inquiry on the allegations around the Supreme Court in the patriation case from 1982, and the Enbridge West-East Pipeline.

Sartorially speaking, snaps to out to Cathy McLeod for a blue and white patterned dress with a black jacket, and to Bernard Valcourt for a medium grey suit with a lavender shirt and light purple plaid tie. Style citations go out to the Honourable Member for Warhammer for a black velvet jacket with a bright orange shirt and tie, and to Christine Moore for her overly busy white dress with random black stripes and red panels. Special mentions go out to Jamie Nicholls for a tan suit with a light blue suit and an orange bow tie, and to Isabelle Morin for a white, light teal and black patterned dress with a horribly wrinkled light blue scarf that was draped over her shoulders and clipped to one side, which one astute reader described as a hair scrunchie that was molecularised to grow to epic proportions, came to life, and is now trying to consume her dress.